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The Elements of A Charcuterie Board

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Whether you're putting together your first charcuterie board or your fiftieth, the elements of a charcuterie board remain the same. And by elements we mean food. The only real rule about 

 is that they need to be filled with food.

If you are looking for a guide, a little bit of help along the way, we have a formula that we generally use that we are excited to share with you. But, it's important to note that when it comes to putting together a charcuterie board, whether you're using a formula or not, there really are no rules. There are traditional things that are regularly incorporated into charcuterie boards, and there are unconventional ways to approach a charcuterie board that can be really fun and exciting.

In the upcoming weeks, we're planning on hosting both a birthday party for five-year-olds and a Thanksgiving dinner. Both events will feature charcuterie boards, but both of those charcuterie boards will look very very different. Our Thanksgiving appetizer charcuterie board will follow a traditional charcuterie board model, while the charcuterie board for a five-year-old birthday party will be anything but traditional, and full of things that he loves to eat.

If you look beyond the traditional elements of charcuterie boards, and you start to view the charcuterie board as simply a vessel to present food in a beautiful way – an excuse to gather or to celebrate — it may be easier to let go and enjoy the process of creating a charcuterie board.

For us the hero of most charcuterie boards is the cheese. We make our first stop, on our charcuterie board shopping trip, at the cheese counter.  Many grocery stores will have a cheese section, but we prefer to go to a grocery store that has a nice, curated cheese counter with a little bit higher quality of cheese.

If we are hosting a party for adults and children, we will generally buy some cheaper cheese that the kids will like – cheese cubes are always a big hit. But if the party is just for adults, we stick to slightly more expensive cheeses because on a traditional charcuterie board we see cheese as the hero. 

And because cheese is the hero, and we may get a little bit of hate for this, we don't go out and buy crazy cheeses. We're not big fans of weird and wild cheese, and neither are friends. If you are and if your friends love crazy cheese, then buy that. But we always want to buy you things that we know people actually want to eat.

 We made the mistake early on of branching out way too much with the cheese selection, and at the end of the night the only thing that was gone was the creamy Havarti. Everything else was left on the board virtually untouched.

We don't like wasting food or money, so while we may pick one small cheese block to try for the first time on a charcuterie board oh, we always make sure that we fill the board primarily with cheese we know that we like and that our friends like. 

If you’re new to cheese and charcuterie, here are a few cheeses that most people generally enjoy: sharp or aged cheddar, Havarti, Boursin’s cheese dip, Gruyere, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Colby, Asiago, and Parmesan. 

After we’ve selected cheese, add the meats. If we’re being honest, we almost always just purchase a charcuterie board meat variety pack at Costco. Why? It’s super fast and easy, and we love all of the meats in the pack. 

We sometimes supplement the meat pack with a stop to the deli and fresh slices of prosciutto, salami, or even pepperoni if we’ve got little kids attending the charcuterie party. We love that at the deli you can pick the exact amount that you need, and you can determine the thickness. 

We always need less meat than we purchase, but as a general rule we put ¾ of the meat out on the board and then fill in the gaps as the night goes on. We like to make note of what goes first (almost always genoa salami) and purchase more of it the next time. 

After cheese and meat come crackers. We like to buy a mix of fancy crackers and crackers that come aren’t fancy but that are ‘fancy-passing’. This means that we hit the fancy cracker section of the store and then we wander over and find cheaper crackers in fun shapes. When you mix the two types together you end up with crackers that everyone enjoys on the board and you save a little money. 

Trader Joe’s is our favorite spot to grab crackers when we can, but since we live pretty far from Trader Joe’s, we head to a nice grocery store to find crackers. 

Along with crackers, we always add a sliced baguette and an easy olive oil dip to the board. The baguette gives people something a little more substantial to grab and the olive oil dip is super easy and yummy.

To make an olive oil dip, start with a single source olive oil that is super high quality. Add it to a small bowl and start adding in your favorite herbs and spices. We always add basil, parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. 

Next on our list comes fruit. We love adding fruit to a charcuterie board to balance the heavier meats and cheeses. Grapes are a 

 staple and we’ve started venturing out and finding fun varieties of grapes to keep things fresh and unexpected. Cotton Candy grapes have been a big hit in the past, as well as Champaign grapes. 

Along with grapes we like to add seasonal fresh fruit to the board. We will fully admit to adding fruit for decor purposes, but we also think about what kind of fruit will actually want to eat and presenting that fruit in an edible way. A pomegranite is stunning on a board, but it’s hard to actually eat depending on the way it’s cut and presented. 

Dried fruits always make their way onto our boards too. They add great color and texture, and when you get the right dried fruits, they fly off the board. We love Trader Joe’s for dried fruit. We stock up on dried oranges and pineapple whenever we’re by the store. 

We also like adding raisins and dried coconut to the board and we grab these at Winco. 

The extras on your charcuterie board are where it gets really fun and creative. Add things that you like to snack on and that go well with what other items you've selected to your bored. Get creative. There really is no right or wrong way to approach this.

We love combining sweet and savory on a charcuterie board so that people can always find something that they love, and so that the board doesn't get boring with flavor profiles.

Our favorite sweet item to add to the board is always dark chocolate.  We have a great chocolate company locally that we buy from, but you can find bars of good chocolate at the grocery store or at a candy shop in your town.

We also really like adding Stroopwafels to are bored because the texture is fun and the shape is great, and they're not so overpowering and sweet that they feel off on the board.

The bulk bins are another great place to find extras for your board. Sometimes we'll buy candy-covered nuts or chocolate raisins in the bulk bins, and sometimes we'll get other items like dried fruits or snack mixes from the bulk bins. It's nice to be able to buy exactly what you need and not overspend and waste food.

Depending on what type of charcuterie board you create, some boards will have very few extras and some boards will have lots of extras. Picking a theme for your charcuterie board at the beginning will help you determine exactly what kind of extras you need. Maybe you're trying to work with a color or a holiday, these themes will help you decide exactly what goes on your board to create a cohesive look and a tasty treat.

The Elements of A Charcuterie Board

10 NOVEMBER, 2022

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